Paul Kerensa

iPaul: The Great Playlist Challenge seems like a show the Festival should have seen long ago. Paul Kerensa has listened to a different music genre on his iPod every month for a year and come back from the experience with a multimedia comedy presentation. Although he may be tackling last year’s obsession, there’s still plenty of scope for laughs.

Taking the audience through his chosen months of music, Kerensa manages to include a string of low-key costume changes, a pretty ludicrous video interval and of course lots of snippets of music. All this is delivered with a bouncy energy that keeps the whole show rolling and gives no one time to get bored.

There will be disappointment for those hoping for an eclectic take on the music world. The self-confessed power ballad-lover’s track collection is pretty narrow and shows him up as a little too behind the times. Lumping together all dance music and putting both hip hop and R’n’B under the umbrella of 'music of black origin' seems out-dated to say the least.

This becomes less problematic as it becomes clear that Kerensa’s personal ignorance is half the joke. Who doesn’t like laughing at someone’s musical taste? And although few of his observations about music break new ground, they are all delivered with aplomb and timing, allowing him to garner good responses for each genre he covers.

Like much of the music he assaults his audience with, Kerensa's show may be a little old-fashioned. But you wouldn’t complain if it was playing on the radio.